The present invention relates to a fingerprint input apparatus for inputting fingerprints to register them or collate them with fingerprints already registered.
None of the fingerprints of different people coincide with each other, and the fingerprints do not change throughout their lives. Owing to these characteristics of fingerprints, fingerprint collation systems are especially used in the fields that require high degrees of security. An apparatus for inputting fingerprint images is a constituent element of such a fingerprint collation system. This fingerprint input apparatus includes an optical system as a constituent. The collation precision of the fingerprint collation system greatly depends on whether fingerprint images can be correctly input.
Any conventional fingerprint input apparatus, however, cannot obtain high-quality fingerprint images.